Multiple non-conflicting actions associated with filter rules may be located and applied to a packet using a single ACL lookup by causing action records to be created from ACEs in the ACL, and then causing the ACL lookup to return the action record rather than any one particular ACE. Radix tables may be created to enable a search engine to quickly locate the appropriate action record based on a particular set of attributes associated with the incoming packet. The action record can contain multiple actions taken from multiple ACEs that apply to the particular packet. By grouping all the actions into an action record, and then searching for an action record that applies to the packet, it is possible to apply all non-conflicting actions to the packet regardless of the number of ACEs that are used to specify those actions. Since all the actions are located together, the actions of all ACEs may be applied to a packet using a single ACL lookup.